Bacurau
Kleber Mendonça Filho’s ongoing quest to sound out the tensions of contemporary Brazil takes a turn at once more strident and more oblique in Bacurau, an exhilaratingly jittery mash-up of genres and moods co-directed with Juliano Dornelles, the production designer for his two previous features. While the unlikely surface attractions of this third trip to the Brazilian northwest include flying saucers, a school named after a certain “João Carpenterio,” and a snarling Udo Kier, there can be no denying the film’s political intentions, as a line in the sand is drawn between past and near future that neatly skewers the present along the way.
Even before Teresa (Bárbara Cohen) arrives back home in Bacurau for her grandmother Carmelita’s funeral, her journey in the local water truck has been rich in portents of
